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In the news business, some events are like Haley’s Comet which circles earth every 76 years: you’re lucky to see them once in a career. A press release from the Judiciary this afternoon is one of those Haley-esque events – if you see one in a lifetime, you’ve seen plenty. And today in 15 years of doing the news we got our first, and probably our last: a quite remarkable four page “Statement by the Judges of the Supreme Court” hand-delivered and signed by the registrar.

It reveals a judiciary on the defensive, hurt by the public attacks upon it, worried about eroded public confidence, yet cognizant of its own failings. The first subject the statement deals with is the now notorious delay in the delivery of some judgments. And while it calls those delays a matter of “extreme regret” – it explains that “the timeline of the delay stemmed largely from the paucity of judges...”

It explains that, “no judiciary would consciously delay the delivery of judgments”... and “judges very often did not have time between hearing one case and the next...” And that being said, the statement says that “the judiciary views with dismay and disappointment the attempts form several quarters to undermine the public’s confidence in the judiciary...”

And in the eyes of the judiciary, there are two culprits: Attorney General Wilfred Elrington who famously “went off” on the Judiciary and the Magistracy when he addressed them at the ceremonial opening of the Supreme Court in January. According to the statement it, "sounded like an open and clear call to undermine the judiciary” and was, quote, “clearly orchestrated to bring it into disrepute.”

And now, the Bar Association has followed that call. The statement refers to “scandalous and open calls by some factions within the Belize Bar Association to invite political interference in the judiciary...” The statement laments that quote, “the approach and stance advocated by some members of the...bar...is a sure recipe for eroding the confidence of the public in the administration of justice...”

That’s the general tone of about three whole pages of the release from what is clearly a very bruised bench. But it ends on a slight up-note, informing that there is progress in the dispute with the bar: it reads: “proposals have been agreed that, it is hoped, will radically abate the problem of delayed judgments and avoid the occurrence in the future.”

And, that’s the news of it, really – that there is – if not peace – at least some accord between the bench and the senior ranks of the bar – whether it will be enough to quiet the malcontents or stop the haemorrhaging in public credibility remains to be seen.